Pliny the Elder from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance

This open access book offers a more comprehensive exploration of Pliny the Elder’s contribution to ancient medicine as preserved in his Natural History, reassessing its role within Greek and Roman medical traditions and tracing the transmission of Pliny's medical material across antiquity, late antiquity, the middle ages, and the Renaissance. Bringing together scholars in classics, ancient medicine, pharmacology, philology, and the history of science, the book investigates Pliny’s methodological approaches, his engagement with natura, and his use of both Greek and Latin sources, situating his encyclopaedic project within broader medical and scientific cultures.

Divided into three parts, this book examines Pliny’s position within the medical world of antiquity, analysing his dialogue with Greek medical thought, his treatment of materia medica, herbal knowledge, toxicology, and medical amulets, and his wider influence on Roman medical theory and practice. It then considers the reception and adaptation of Plinian medicine in later centuries, showing how epitomes, medical compendia, poetic reworkings, humanist scholarship, and Renaissance therapeutic writing reframed his ideas for new intellectual contexts. Together, these studies demonstrate Pliny’s enduring significance for the development of medical literature, pharmacology, and early scientific thought, and provide an essential resource for researchers in classics, ancient medicine, and the history of science.